More governmental folly at CIDA By Gerry Helleiner Published August 11, 2010

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Canada has never been a leader when it comes to foreign aid volume. The current level of Canada's aid contribution has never been near the international target of 0.7 per cent of gross national product, reached regularly by the Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands; and it will drop in coming years as the Government's decision to freeze aid spending comes into effect.

Canada's failure to be a volume leader, however, has not stopped it from some past leadership in efforts to increase aid's developmental effectiveness. In particular, the national aid agency, CIDA, has been a global promoter of gender equality in global development efforts. In its building of development partnerships with non-governmental organizations, CIDA has also been a leader. But in recent months the Harper government seems to be reversing some of these positive elements in CIDA programming.

The most recent in the government's series of unfortunate decisions relating to CIDA concerns the Canadian Council for International Cooperation (CCIC), the highly respected umbrella body for over 90 Canadian-based nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working in the sphere of development at home and abroad.

The CCIC provides the opportunity for Canada's highly diverse development NGOs to exchange experience and concerns; and, where appropriate, to speak with one voice.

That collective voice, representing the enormous range of experienced NGO employees, volunteers and contributors has always been both well-informed and deeply supportive of the poor and marginalized of the world. It is a voice that must and will, in one way or another, continue to be heard.

For decades the CCIC has received modest supportive funding from the government through CIDA, just as equivalent bodies receive governmental support in most other developed countries. Speaking to its annual general meeting, the previous CIDA President spoke of the CCIC as a "first order" partner; and so it has been. There has been no objective change in any of these circumstances.

The recent cessation of all CIDA funding for CCIC therefore makes absolutely no developmental sense and there has been no governmental attempt to explain it publicly. Nor has there been any prior consultation either with affected partners in Canada and overseas or with the Canadian public. International Development Minister Bev Oda's recent reference to on-going CIDA support for "knowledge partners" who contribute to aid effectiveness and policy development makes curtailment of CIDA's funding all the more perplexing, since such contributions have been precisely the mandate of CCIC.

Official support for NGOs has always been predicated on the need for understanding and active engagement by Canadian citizens in Canada's international development work, without which public support to meet its ODA commitments is weakened. It has also rested on a belief that the network of relationships created between Canadian organizations and individuals and their counterparts in the developing world benefits Canada and contributes to the building of more democratic civil societies in other countries.

The evidence from recent decisions would suggest that the present Government instead sees any organization receiving CIDA funding as simply an instrument for implementing government policy and priorities. In addition, lengthy delays in approving funding agreements, all too frequent current occurrences even with organizations that have enjoyed good relations with CIDA going back decades (some of which CIDA management has tried to rectify), have crippled organizations' finances and damaged relationships with their overseas partners.

What we are witnessing is the dismantling of the infrastructure that has permitted a wide and diverse range of Canadians to contribute actively to poverty eradication in poor countries. This is bound to result in a deliberate shift by overseas partners away from working with Canadians to working with others who are perceived as more responsive to their needs and priorities.

The amounts involved are not large by governmental standards, but the implications of this decision are serious. The success of Canada's efforts to address global poverty and promote human rights and sustainable development depends upon informed input to decision making, vigorous public debate and, ultimately, broad support from the Canadian public. It is difficult to think of a more frontal assault on all three than the cessation of funding for the CCIC.

This decision cannot have been a casual one or the product of inadvertent oversight. There has been plenty of time to consider the solid arguments publicly made against it. Moreover, it follows the cessation during the past year of all CIDA funding for MATCH International and KAIROS, NGOs working with women's organizations and Canadian churches respectively.

The only possible conclusion is that the government has an agenda in this arena that does not accord with that of the Canadians who have worked most diligently and effectively in the development arena.

I trust that these policy missteps will eventually be reversed, if not by this government by some future one. In the meantime I hope that CIDA will be able to withstand the current government's continuing assault on some of the closest and best informed Canadian partners and supporters of development.

CIDA deserves support in its continuing efforts to fulfill the parliamentary mandate to address global poverty and respond to those it is supposed to be assisting. Recent decisions as to the disposition of CIDA funds by the current government are so at odds with CIDA's mission and mandate, and public confidence therein, however, that it is no longer possible to have any confidence in its Minister and her policies.

Nor is it any longer possible to have confidence that the current government welcomes, or indeed even listens to, professional assessments such as those of the CIDA evaluation committee, on which I have been serving as an independent member. It is for these reasons that I have resigned from this committee.

Gerry Helleiner is professor emeritus, economics and research fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto.

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